Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-04-03
BUDS AT q BALL.
Dressing-RoOm Scenes Not Open to Public
GaEe-Pre-emphng the Mirror-satin
slippers and Delicate SILK Hosiery.
49,. 49,. Ds,,sMga9.

Have You ever been in the next o
where you could hear well, even if you
couldn't see? Or have you ever stOOdjust
outside the door and peped just a little?
The door is always open, you know, and in
the existing hurry and scramble you can
stand outside and look in if you wan to.
Nobody will see you, and if n of the
pretty dears did chance to let her eyes
stray in your direction she'd only give a
pretty little scream, and then she'd come
out pretty sOOn and clutch your arm so
modestly and charmingly, even contiden-
TALLY, as ifsome new bond ofsympathy eS-
listed between you, you know, just because
you'd peeped and seen her pOwdering her
face with a channels skin, or changing her
boots for satin slippers-that's about all
there would be to it, 80 you'd better peep
if you get q chance. It's no end OF iun.
Now, you know, girls never come 10
halls individually. They conn IN shoals.
At least they arrive in shoals, and you can
depend upon it if yOu see one goddess-of-
hberty-like young woman enter the door
WAY, there'll be half q dozen more follow
ING in her wake. They come in tramping
on each others toes, and then every body
makes a dive for the mirror. Sometimes
the mirror is big enough for them, but
often il isn't. About this time somebody
always pouts maudibly, although audibly
she ALWAYS say, Don't hurry, dear;
there's oceans of time" So Dear" takes
her time and primps, and fuses, and
twists, and Judges, and gets into a regular
stew of impotence before the mirror;
wishes the hairdresser understood his
business q little better, and bemOans the
fact that mamma will have that old
fashioned dreSsmaker, You know"
And then when the maid comes to but
ton on the new, tight, little satin slip
uers, they do hurt, a her big brother
Tom would say, so ALFRED much, and
she has such a time keeping back the
tears when the cruel hook straightens out
the buttons and buttOnhole right over her
sorest corn, and then her new stays hurt
her so when she stOops, and her gloves
when they are buttOned, and she can't
yet the powder to stick well on her nose,
and altogether by the time she gets ready
10 90 into the ballroom she's almost q
wreck, speaking from an interior stand
point. although her exterior IS usually
serene.
When she is gone another girl pre-
empts the mirror and goes through the
same kind ofthing, and then another comes
up, and then another, and while the IN
pocent looking little yellow chamois skins
which they all bring in their pockets, are
being rubbed briskly up and down, back
and forth, croSSwise and lengthwlSe, and
everywise in fact, the dignity which they
all wear when they first come IN be
gins to melt away slike snow beneath
the rays of warm February sun,
and they all chatter like magpies. They
all begin by telling each other that they
look Just too perfectly lovely for anything,
and they all 90 in for pins. A great many
of them talk with pins in their mouths,
they discuss everything with these sharp
pointed things halfway down their
tbroats, from the latest lunch they attend
ed down to "our new cook, who IS a
perfect wretch, " and to the coachman hired
by Augustus, who managed to get them
here so late, don't you know
They jabbera about their dreSSesan about
the latest german, and comment upon
where the next one will be, aud then sud
denly some girl says: How does that bow
nook in the back? | can't see 1t, you
know" and then all the girls look
straight before them at their own faces,
| and unite in saving 1.-THE set OF that bow
is perfectly lovely; couldn't be any other
way on you, you know. Llll, n so Lul'
goes into the ball room with her ribbons
| all awry, because of course she can't see
her hack to straighten them, unless she Is
intercepted by a maid, and the maids are
usually too busy b%uttoning shoes to notice
tribes as small as ribbons awry.
For there never was n girl yet who cared
a copper how another girl looked at a ball
There is one thing always sure to hap
pen in a dressing room, and that Is If there
* a woman present not in evening dress
she is ALWAYS taken for q maid, 6esought
for checks. She is also invariably asked
to stick in pins, and sometimes asked t
null them out. She can't refuse owing Il
the pressure of circumstances, and some
times she doesn't. However that may be
the u ladies don't always remember
to thank her. They are in too great
hurry to get into the ball rOOIu.
Then comes the young women with
whole garden of wet flowers in their arms
The flowers drip over everything, and finally
they are discarded as entirely too wet 4
wear, and the maid is asked to look ate
them, where they are lett tumbling abou
ON the dressing case. Between the dance
Young ladies are always running into thu
dressing room and giving violent little tug
at silk hosiery aud other articles pertaining
10 their toilets. Stitches are always rip
ping, laces and silks are always tearing
and trains, particularly long ones, are tn,
cause of more red eyes and angry eXclama
tons than, perhaps, any other cause IN tn
world. YOu will often see q young lad
running in with a handful Of torn lace
smiling and chatting in the hall with SOM,
Young fellow who walks down with her
But she doesn't smile and chat much wheI
she gets into the dressing room. Not she
She goes at that torn flounce with ven
geance in her eye, and sometimes the maids
mend the ~flounce, and sometimes its faI
owner tears il much worse h a IT was torn
originally in her impotence.
go the night goes on.
Then come the married ladies, some o
them middle aged. They are quite as par
ticular about their appearance rs the girl
are, and they talk more. Their range o
subjects is greater, and a great many o
their remarks run to this effect: "GOOC
evening, my dear Mrs. D., Pm so glaC
to see you. Do you know | was so an
moved to think | was out when you calleC
the other day..that / nearly cried?'
They talked about their servants am
their babies and about how difficult it i
tor a married woman ever to get out any
where, and sometimes if you happen to b,
in the hall when the begin to promenad
with a gentleman you car hear them refe
to that delightful new story in the las
Century" but they don't try the Cen
tury" scheme on with each other. EXis
tence is altogether quite too abbreviated